US Rhodes Scholars Selected to Start Studies at Oxford in 2023

Washington – A new group of US Rhodes Scholars were selected for the prestigious academic program in a selection process conducted online for the third consecutive year.

The class of 32 scholars for 2023 was “selected entirely virtually, with both candidates and selectees participating remotely, securely and independently,” said Lord Trust U.S. Secretary Elliot F. Gerson said in a statement early Sunday. “As successful as the process was, we certainly hope to return next year to face-to-face interviews and selections in cities across the country, as has been done for over a century.”

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, interviews for the 2021 and 2022 scholarship classes have virtually taken place.

According to the trust, the 2023 class will begin studies at Oxford University in England in October for postgraduate degrees in the social, humanities, biological and physical sciences.

One of the students selected from more than 60 countries, the US Scholars were evaluated by 16 independent district committees from a pool of over 2,500 applications. Of these applicants, 840 were accepted by 244 US colleges and universities.

After receiving school recommendations, most of the district committees selected 14 or more applicants for online interviews. The committee met individually through a virtual platform from November 10-12 and nominated her 235 finalists from 73 universities. This included nine of her schools where no student had ever won a scholarship.

The costs of the scholars’ two to three years of study (averaging about $75,000 per year) will go to Rhodes, a British charity set up to fulfill the bequest of Cecil Rhodes, founder of the diamond mining and manufacturing company De Beers. Funded by Trust.

The scholarship was founded in 1902, the first class entered Oxford in 1903, and the first US Rhodes Scholars arrived in 1904, according to the Trust’s U.S. Secretary’s website.